


All That Is Left

by Lady_Katana4544



Series: Guiding Lights [1]
Category: Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: AU where there are four Heralds instead of one, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon, Angry Herald is an angry puppy, Angst, Bonding between the Qunari the Dwarf and the Elf, Canon-Typical Violence, Cassandra and Cullen are exasperated by everything, Corypheus is a big meanie and an uncaring arse, Cultural Differences, Established Relationship, F/F, F/M, Femslash, Interspecies Relationship(s), Iron Bull is amused, Leliana is also amused, Off-screen Minor Character Death, Off-screen death of children, Period-Typical Racism, Prior Married Herald, Size Difference, Slow Build, Some gen is mixed in, Varric is heavily amused
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-09-30
Updated: 2015-10-30
Packaged: 2018-04-24 02:48:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,047
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4902670
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lady_Katana4544/pseuds/Lady_Katana4544
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which there are four survivors and none of them are the Most Holy from the explosion at the Temple, all being called Herald. This a little more than anyone would have expected to wake up too.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This was inspired by two prompts on the Dragon Age kink meme, [here](http://dragonage-kink.livejournal.com/13696.html?thread=52759680#t52759680) and [here](http://dragonage-kink.livejournal.com/13275.html?thread=50866907#t50866907). Both of which immediately combined into something odd and snowballed away from what one of the anon prompters were asking for.
> 
> So warnings: OFFSCREEN MINOR CHARACTER DEATHS (CHILDREN INCLUDED) :( - This obviously won't be shown in the fic itself, but it will get mentioned here and there.
> 
> Tags will also be update periodically through the story.

He’s running.

He can hear the sounds of something clicking rapidly and moving fast along behind him.

In his mind, he wishes that he knew how exactly he had gotten into his current situation or at least what had happened prior to his being in this murky green place.

There are three others ahead of him, one of them is short - a Dwarf he thinks, there is another much taller with horns, most likely one of the Qunari guards that he had seen at the Temple for the meeting between both sides. Part of him, hopes that the third figure is his wife, Catrina, but it can’t be her surely, this other person is much leaner and shorter than her which would mean that this one is possibly an Elf.

He’s uncertain if that means one of the City Elves that he had seen lurking around or one of the Dalish Elves that had come to watch the arguments.

Where are they exactly?

Everything around them is green and smells rather strange.

Where is Catrina?

Where is his -?

There’s a shout and then one of the others is pushing at him to move faster as the clicking gets louder behind them.

“Where -”

Someone hisses low in his ear.

“Not now, idiot. Keep moving up! Don’t let those things behind us get you!”

Then he sees it, a figure in green reaching towards him - no them with one hand while gesturing with the other towards an opening to somewhere else behind them. The two smaller figures leap through it; he tries to stop and get a better look at the figure in green, but there’s a large rough hand around his wrist and tugging him through the portal.

The clicking sound disappears, there’s pain in his hand, in his heart, his head is reeling, and he can’t help, but like there’s something important that he’s missing. 

_Catrina, Catrina, Catrina…!_

He blacks out as he hears faraway footsteps approaching.

0

He wakes up slowly, hearing low hissed intakes of breath as something crackles. There’s a pain in his hand and he winces as he blinks his eyes open slowly while an accented voice drawls nearby.

“About time, you woke up.”

And part of him very much wishes in that moment that he hadn’t. He’s in an underground prison, with more than one helmeted guard aiming a sword at him along with his apparent companions, who are a Dwarf, a Dalish Elf, and a Qunari. All three of which he notes in the dim light of the room are female.

Where is his dearest Catrina?

He very much doesn’t want to be here, he’d rather be outside of this room looking for his family. 

He’d rather be -

The door of their little prison room suddenly opens and he watches as two women stride confidently into the room. He notes that the one woman wearing the purple hood and watching them all with keen eyes as the other woman slowly circled around them.

“What -?”

“Tell me, why we shouldn’t kill any of you now?”

His heart drops into his stomach as he bows his head and the woman continues to circle them while her companion watches them. Her keen eyes are on him when he looks up, as though she was looking into his soul.

“.. is destroyed. You four are the only survivors that we have found! Tell me why -”

He can only shake his head as the woman tries to accuse of something he knows that he would never do. The other three… possibly? He doesn’t know them well enough to know for sure if they would such a thing.

“Please stop. Just stop.”

The room falls deathly silent as silent tears make paths down his face into his beard, falling on his bindings and the woman is instantly in his face.

“Then tell me what I want to know! Why? Why would you and your companions do such a thing? To take that much life is monstrous! It -”

He quickly shakes his head.

“No! I would never do such a thing! Never! I don’t think the others would do it either, but I don’t know them well enough to be sure..”

In unison the marks on their hands crackle briefly to life and he groans softly as the woman roughly takes his hand shaking it roughly then grabs his shoulders to shake him.

“You expect me to believe that when you and them have identical marks on your hands? Do you think me so stupid that I would swallow such -”

The other woman suddenly moves forward to stop her companion and he hears her soft words.

“We need them all, Cassandra. You know that as well as I.”

Slowly the so named Cassandra nods grimly as she meets the other woman’s eyes.

“You are correct. Head to the forward camp, I will lead these four to the Rift and meet you there.”

She bows her head slightly and they are left alone with the dark haired grim faced woman, who scowls at them. He takes the moment to glance at his fellow prisoners who don’t meet his eyes as Cassandra changes their bindings to thick ropes and marches them outside.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A relatively short chapter because I'm splitting some of it into another chapter and got distracted with other fandom things. Plus RL got annoying for a while.

“What’s going on?”

“Quiet.”

“Why are we going outside?”

There’s a sigh and someone nearby snickers in the darkness around them.

“It will be easier to show you.”

The woman, Cassandra, he reminds himself, leads them single file out of the little Dungeon and then outside. He glances around as there’s a soft intake of breath beside, looking around at his fellow prisoners.

He had been right in that they were not human at all; one was a well muscled female brunette grey eyed Dwarf with a sideways scar across her left eye, her nose had the appearance of having been broken in the past, and a tattoo that gave the vague appearance of something like a crown. The Qunari had a healing scar across her nose, as well as an older one in her left eyebrow, green eyes, and her black hair was styled in the look of a mohawk. Her horns curled down near her face and were rough with pitted scars. At least the portions of her horns that weren't covered in sharpened metal did. The Elf had dark haired, she had fair dusky features despite the small hook like nose and sharp grey-brown eyes. The tattoo that marked her as a Dalish Elf was a soft dark brown and for some reason parts of it reminded him of a tree.

The Qunari nudges his shoulder roughly to get his attention and when he looks at her, she angles her head up towards the sky with a small frown on her face. He follows the angle of her head and immediately wishes that he hadn’t looked as his heart falls into his stomach.

A large sinister green hole sits in the sky above where he knows the Temple sits at and he whimpers softly at the sight of it, ignoring the women as they share silent looks amongst each other. Catrina had been at the Temple with him, along with their young son.

Where were they?

Part of him hoped that somehow they were alive and somewhere safe.

“What is it?”

“At the moment, we can only call it the “Breach”. A massive tear in Veil between our world and the Fade, that is only growing larger as the hour passes. It is the largest of the ones we have seen appear thus far.”

The Dalish Elf sucks in a sharp breath as the Qunari speaks with a hard edge in her voice.

“There are others?”

Cassandra nods slightly.

“Yes. Though they are much smaller than the one in the sky.”

“And you all think that we somehow managed do that? Because I can tell you that the little Elf Mage here and I don’t have the ability to manage that scale of damage.”

She takes a step towards the scowling Qunari, ignoring the dark look that the Elf aims at the Qunari mage’s back.

“It has to be you four. There was no one else in the area when our scouts arrived except for you.”

He shakes his head violently, catching her sharp eyed attention.

“What is it?”

“Your scouts have to be wrong. There had to have someone else there besides us. There has to be.”

The green hole suddenly pulses and the four of them are kneeling on the ground, clutching at their wrists as the pain spikes higher. Cassandra kneels in front of him, pushing at his shoulder and frowning at him lightly when he finally looks at her.

“No matter what you believe should be, we have to deal with what’s in front of us right now. The particulars of anything else can be dealt with afterwards. When we have time to breathe again.”

The Dwarf snorts loudly.

“Will there ever be a time for that?”

Cassandra snorts in response.

“No one knows for certain. Will the four of you help us?”

There’s silence as all eyes on him and his back stiffens in response before he looks at at the three women kneeling behind him with watery eyes over his shoulder. Each of them give a slight nod to him and part of him realizes that they have decided to follow him whether he wanted to be a leader or not.

He turns back to look at Cassandra, who meets his gaze expectant.

“We will help.”

He tries to ignore the sigh of relief she makes as she helps them all stand up again and begins to them out and away from the village. As she cuts their bonds, a pit of dread settles in his stomach as he glances toward the sky and then he has to ignore the freezing tears running down his face as they’re running towards the green hole in the sky.

And towards the last place where he had last seen his young family at.

Even with the weapons they manage to salvage at the broken bridge, he finds himself rather unprepared to be facing demons. Completely unlike his companions who go after the demons rather quickly and take them down with ease.

Nor is he prepared for Varric and Solas.

Though he does manage to take a few demons down with his tiny daggers that stand between their destination and help the Dwarf seal a small green portal as the others take care of distracting and dispatching demons.

He hopes that the demons didn’t get his wife and son when they had first appeared.

“So what’s with the frozen line of tears on beardy’s face?”

The smaller Dwarf snorts rudely as they run towards the forward camp.

“... ‘Beardy’ as you call him, is convinced he left someone behind somewhere. Or more than one someone. Possibly at the Temple?”

Silence follows that statement as he swallows his tears and around the rock that had settled itself inside his throat.

“... Oh. Seeker, do any of them know what happened to the Temple itself?”

“No. But they will all see soon enough.”

“Riiiight. Because going in blind is somehow always better.”

The Qunari woman growls suddenly reminding them of her presence. Not that they could forget about her if they wanted too.

“Going in blind stinks. I hate not knowing anything before going straight into something.”

The Dalish Elf nods slightly, her eyes keeping an watchful gaze on everything around them as they head for the main camp.

“My Keeper would agree.”

Whatever happens next is a complete blur in his memory, he vaguely remembers meeting the Chancellor, before splitting off; sending the Dwarf and the Elf up the mountain path with Leliana while he and the Qunari go with the Seeker, Solas, and Varric on another more path.

Which when he thinks about it later, the Seeker might have actually grumbled about it.

One moment he’s staring at the largest demon he has ever seen in all in his life and then the next moment he finds himself blinking up at a wooden roof. He barely hears the elven servants stammering as he stares at his hand.

Questions burned brightly in his mind.

Where was Catrina and their son?

Why and how was he still alive?


End file.
